This invention is directed to an illuminated toy which utilizes captive light conducting elements located between a first and a second perforated panel. A membrane having a plurality of closable perforations is associated with the light conducting elements, with light being conducted through the elements when the elements are located within the openings in the membrane, and light passage inhibited by the membrane when the elements are removed from the openings of the membrane.
A class of toys exist which utilize a light source incorporated in a housing. Two stacked plates are positioned in front of the light source with a plurality of holes formed in each plate, with the holes aligned with one another. An opaque material, such as a piece of black paper or the like is positioned between the plates to screen out the light. A design is then created on the plates by pushing a plurality of pointed pegs through the holes in one plate, through the opaque material and into the holes of the second plate, such that the ends of these pegs which are positioned through the second plate are then in the beam of light emitted from the light source. The pegs conduct this beam of light along their length and the pattern of light conducted by the totality of the pegs is visible outside of the toy to the user of the toy.
These toys are very entertaining and educational in that they challenge a child or an adult to create an interesting pattern and the like. The toy as described in the preceding paragraph requires that a separate opaque plate be utilized for each and every pattern, in that once the opaque plate is perforated by the pointed pegs, light will always shine through the perforations, and a pattern different from the original one made in the opaque material would be deteriorated by the extraneous light shining through the holes left from the original pattern.
Furthermore, with the type of toy discussed previously, the pointed pegs, by their very size and nature, are prone to getting lost with the passage of time and can present a safety hazard with small children because of the possibility of being inserted into an eye or other delicate organ, or of being swallowed by young children. Additionally during actual use of the games, the pegs tend to get scattered, stepped on and broken.
Modern lighting techniques for advertising and the like utilize liquid crystal displays, florescent screens and the like. These were preceded by wide scale use of neon tubing. This, in turn, was preceded by the use of certain display screens which incorporated spherical elements which were located between two perforated plates. The spherical elements were located in perforations in the plates to display messages and the like. Illumination of the spherical elemens with a light source resulted in illumination of the pattern or the like in which the spherical elements were arranged to result in a lighted sign or the like.
The signs created with the spherical elements discussed in the previous paragraph, however, were not easily amenable to changing of the indicia therein. The plates had to be dismantled with respect to one another such that the spherical elements could be rearranged between the plates, with the plates then repositioned with respect to one another to hold the spherical elements in any new arrangement. This obviously does not lend itself to use in toys or the like, because of the possibility of once again losing or scattering of the spherical elements and the difficulty in changing the pattern by having to physically remove one of the plates with respect to the other.